Sunday, March 18, 2018

Greg sent some cards as a return for those I sent him for my Year For Team Traders I advertised a couple months ago. It's been a slow trickle getting those in the mail: like I mentioned, it'll probably take all year for those who commented on a team to finally get them.

Anyhow, Greg sent some nice stuff in return, and the first is the last card I needed for my 1977 Topps Patriots team set, and a card that was #8 on my Top Ten Wants.

Saturday, March 17, 2018

I grew up near Anaheim Stadium, and my siblings still live in the area (I’ve been in Texas the last 18 years). The Angels are a part of our family’s history. I haven’t counted up how many team sets I’ve completed, but I do know that the collection is up to 16 full card binders, 4 full dupes boxes.

I also collect any flats related to the Angels: pocket schedules, ticket stubs, ticket information, Mike Trout wrappers, etc. All of that stuff fills another 4 binders.

2. Boston/New England Patriots 1960-1995

How do I explain West Coast Angels and East Coast Patriots you ask? My parents were born and raised in Rhode Island, where they had my three oldest siblings. They all then moved west to Southern California where the rest of us were born. So, in our house it was always Red Sox/Angels and Patriots/Rams. I went with the Angels (because I got to go see them play) and I chose the Patriots because I liked their uniforms at first (Steve Grogan later cemented it for me). I like the Rams a little too, but NOT the Red Sox!

I put the “1960-1995” restriction on the Patriots collection because I couldn’t handle another massive, endless team collection like my Angels collection. Oh I’ll accept post-1995 Patriots for sure, but they go into a team box to be organized and catalogued at some point in the distant future.

3. Fleer Baseball Logo Stickers

Probably my favorite collection outside of the Angels. I love logos. I love Fleer logos. Because I’m a “completist” though, these sets are a bear to collect as there are so many variations and some of the older sets (like 1979) are just plain hard to find. I use Fleer Sticker Project extensively to identify all the differences in these.

4. Baseball Checklists

I got hooked on baseball checklists a couple years ago, another overlooked, often thrown out card that I have sympathy for. The older Topps checklist cards have errors on just about every card, so in reality I’ll need to collect two sets of each, the A and B (and sometimes C) versions.

I always thought they were interesting, especially when I first noticed them in 1983 and 1984 Topps, but I was not interested enough to keep any of them as a collection. I decided to start collecting them a few years ago, (and kicking myself for all that I threw away) and Man how the collection has grown. You’d be surprised how many different there are and how far back they go. I have so many now they have their own binder.

6. Baseball Cards #444

Just started this collection last year. Number 444 stems from goofing around with a buddy of mine when we were kids. We both looked at his bedroom clock radio at the same time and exclaimed “It’s 4:44!” Weird how stuff like that sticks with you. Anyhow in honor of my buddy I decided to make it an odd collection. Baseball Cards Come To Life got the collection well on its way last year when he dropped 36 different #444 cards on me in a trade package.

7. Player Collections

My PCs consist of a handful of former Angels (the exception being John Olerud) in their non-Angels uniforms. I do not include a duplicate of their Angels uniformed cards in the PC binder because those cards are already a part of the Angels team sets. I’ve toyed with adding Dale Murphy to the collection, but I’m not ready to commit to that just yet.

8. Signed Testimony Cards/Signed Sets

I’m a Christian so I’m drawn to Christian athletes. I don’t actively pursue just any autographed testimony card, I really only collect this particular design which I find simple and not overstated.
I'm also working on autograph sets for all the Toy's R Us rookie box sets, 1994 Ted Williams, 1991 Topps Archives 1953 Topps Reprints, and 1992 Action Packed Baseball.

9. Animated Batman Sets

Got turned onto these, and to the cartoons, when they first came out in the early 90's. Watched every episode when my son was young. Of all the comic Batmen, Animated Batman is my favorite.

10. All-Star Game Ballots

What can I say, I like paper.

11. Master Baseball Sets

Master sets have moved way down on my priority list, I’m not really a master set guy anymore. The first sets targeted and completed were 1983 Topps and Fleer, 1984 Topps, and 1991 Upper Deck, all of which I still have. I finished 1979 and 1980 Topps, and came close on 1982 Topps as well, but those have all moved on to other collectors. Recently I’ve added a few more to the short list that I would like to complete, like 1992 Upper Deck Minors and 1993 Triple Play.

Most of my collections/wants are up under the tabs at the top.

It's been interesting reading what you all collect, I hope you find mine interesting as well.

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Here's two packs I bought recently in order to get the Trout wrapper, yes, to get the Trout wrapper, one that I needed for the Trout Wrapper Collection. Kinda crazy buying an older pack of cards just for the wrapper, but hey, to each his own, right?

2013 Series 2, 10-card Hobby

I really wasn't too concerned with pulling anything good, but let's see what I did pull.

PACK 1

Top 4 cards in the pack, meh.

1:6 Emerald Parallel

Ooh, a 1:12 pack pull, pretty cool. Machado's a good one for this subset.

Next 4 cards, pulled an Angel, although I wish it would have worked out better for both of us Josh.

Info card on the bottom.

PACK 2

Top 4 cards, hey another Angel. Seems I rarely pull Angels even though that's primarily what I'm looking for when I rip a pack.

1:6 Emerald Parallel, pretty good card in Aroldis Chapman.

Whoa, my second Cut To The Chase in two packs!

And a Bryce Harper, second best only to the Trout card I think.

Next 4 cards, another Angel, and two future Angels.

Thought I'd show you the back of the info card.

So, out of 2 hobby packs: 3 Angels, 2 Emeralds and 2 Cut To The Chase.

Pretty good.

I know there's a 2013 jumbo 50-count Hobby pack Trout wrapper that I need, but it was a little too pricey to justify buying the unopened pack just for the packaging. I think there's an 8-card pack out there too.